Geek. Culture.

Owl City: The Midsummer Station

So, how are you doing with that New Year’s resolution of losing weight and getting fit? I am hoping that you are energized and hitting it as hard as you can. I know how difficult it can be towards the end of January when the days are short and the weather is cruel. Never fear! I am here to provide another bit of advice as you work your way to that goal.

One of the difficult things for me when I started exercising was that I needed something to help me push through the difficult beginning and then carry me through to the end of what ever length of time I had set. I worked out by myself and had no one to talk with so I turned to music. I pretty much threw what ever I had on iTunes onto my Shuffle and would hit the gym. Sadly, most of my music collection was not very conducive to staying energized. I had to make a concerted effort to find music that would work for me. One of those discoveries was Owl City. The Midsummer Station is in heavy rotation on my iPod.

Owl city has an electronic and poppy sound mixed with quirky and up-beat lyrics. You may already be familiar with the album as “Good Time” is seeing heavy radio play. The funny thing is that this is not my favorite song. This accolade has to go to “Bombshell Blonde” as it captures everything I enjoy about Owl city as well being an awesome song to have start playing while I’m working out. It has the electronic sound that I like with a nice bass line that runs throughout the entire song. Add to this fun word play in lines like “Bad news, I’m a fuse, and I’ve met my match. So stand back, it’s about to go off!” Simple and quirky but something to drag the mind away from the pain of getting through the 30th lap around the track. Another outstanding track on this album is “I’m Coming After you.” It is a high-energy love song with the signature lyrics of Adam Young. It has a good bass line that helps when working out and there are lines like “I saw your face in a criminal sketch/Don’t be alarmed ’cause you don’t know me yet/I’m on the prowl now, sniffing around this town for you” to distract from the difficult portions of the workout. Rounding out the top three songs for me would be “Shooting Star”. Song has a nice ethereal quality to it while still being very energetic. In addition it has lyrics like “Fill the darkest night, with a brilliant light, ’cause it’s time for you to shine.” which are simple yet uplifting. Always useful when working out.

The only problem I had with the album was that it only covers a 40 minute workout. I do an hour to two hours at a stretch and have had to find some other options now that my workout is lasting longer. If you are just getting started this should get you through and keep your spirits up the entire time. It certainly helps to keep me smiling.

If you have any suggestions for music to listen to while working out leave them in the comments.

If you want a sample of the music you can find the video for Shooting Star here.